He who receives not a bribe, who has regard for the weak,
Shall be well pleasing to Shamash, he shall prolong his life,
The judge, the arbitrer who gives righteous judgment,
Shall complete a palace, a princely abode for his dwelling place.
He who gives money at usury, what does he profit?
He cheats himself of gain, he empties his purse.
These two features, the great length of the hymn and the presence of these wisdom passages would seem to indicate a late and somewhat blasé development of the hymn. Not great enthusiasm for the deity, but sober reflection and the pious wish to say everything possible about the deity controlled the writer. The complete absence of any magical element, whether of ceremonies or prayers, shows that there must have been a considerable hymnal literature of which unfortunately we are not in possession.
We have seen that the great majority of Assyrian hymns are addressed in the second person to deity, which is the usage of prayer; that the temple is the home of these hymns but that a few of them might be called Nature hymns; that they may be divided into two portions, the invocation and the ascription of praise; that they are written in the court style, employing the honorific titles of royalty and nobility; that with very few exceptions they are followed by petitions for divine help, and that the ascriptions of praise are frequently so worded as to be little else than introductory to such petitions; that, as the hymnal portion is lengthened, and as the lament and petition are shortened until they disappear entirely, we have the evolution of the hymn; that it begins with something approaching flattery of the god, as introductory to the appeal for aid, and develops into a genuine expression of adoration for deity.
The invocation of the Assyrian hymn corresponds in a loose way to the call to praise of the Hebrew hymn, and the Ascription of praise corresponds much more closely to the body of the Hebrew hymn. It exalts the deity as being great in the midst of the gods, as bearing a glorious name, as possessor of temples and cities, and as ruler over wide areas, as the creator and preserver of the physical universe, and as being himself wise, and powerful, and merciful, a king and judge among gods and men. Closer attention will be given to the content of the Assyrian hymn when comparing that content with the content of the Hebrew hymns of praise.
It ought to be observed that in many instances the Assyrian hymnal introduction to prayer is clearly attested to be the vehicle of individual rather than congregational worship. In certain hymns we have examples of god addressing god in hymnal language, and in connection with other hymns there are directions for the priest to repeat himself both hymnal introduction and the petition which follows it. Moreover in the petition which follows the hymnal introduction a space is frequently left for the insertion of the name of the suppliant. Still more important is the fact that in the hymnal introductions themselves the first personal pronoun frequently occurs: